There’s nothing like actually turning off everything else and convincing the distractable mind that no, it cannot do anything until it’s produced the day’s wordage.\u00a0 No, we are not playing Solitaire.\u00a0 No, we are not reading email.\u00a0 No, we are not checking Twitter, or LJ, or the SFF.net newsgroup.\u00a0\u00a0 The television is off limits.\u00a0\u00a0 The new red shiny netbook is off limits.\u00a0\u00a0 The outdoors is off limits.\u00a0\u00a0 Cooking is off limits.\u00a0 (Dishwashing isn’t.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The piano is off limits.\u00a0 This chair, this keyboard, this one file.\u00a0 First.<\/p>\n
The amount of whining, sighing, whimpering, and moaning that goes on…the pitiful grinding of clashing mental gears…the squeaking of the chair…the fruitless search for the right music…NO.\u00a0 Hands on keyboard.\u00a0 Moving on the keys. \u00a0 Whine, moan, whimper…and then a few words come.\u00a0 And a few more.\u00a0 And more.\u00a0 (Check word count…wailie, wailie woe, only 132???) \u00a0 Stern measures in the mind (“Do you want me to make the bathroom off limits, like in third grade???”)\u00a0 The count creeps up…and up…and at a thousand there’s a reward.<\/p>\n
So anyway, by the end of the week, the works were much smoother to get going in the morning, with less complaint, and every day the required amount was reached sooner,\u00a0 except for Friday.\u00a0 Thursday, I had done 3300 words, which is enough to make my hands really hurt.\u00a0\u00a0 I had stayed up really late doing it.\u00a0 So Friday I could not wake up on time, and finally gave up and slept another hour or so.\u00a0\u00a0 Forcing 2000 words out (by 11 pm) was a struggle.<\/p>\n
But…the weekend has yielded 2300 (about 1000 after the birthday party last night, the rest today.)\u00a0 Much of this is basic narrative–since I don’t outline, this is how I find out where the story’s going.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some of it will be “wrong” and you’ll never see it.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But it’s building the critical mass, and that’s a necessary stage in the construction, or growth, or crystallization or whatever the right metaphor is for you, of these books.\u00a0\u00a0 They need to have a lot in them–an immense amount in them–before I can stand back and say “Oh–that’ s in the next one, that didn’t really happen, and this…yeah, this and this and this other bit over here–when I shake the clods off it–all belong.”<\/p>\n
A writer I know has been reporting in Twitter on advice from famous bestselling writers (in other fields) that she picked up at a conference, and I find myself muttering about the advice, which may be why they’re richer and famouser, but I don’t think so.\u00a0 I think the advice is what worked for them.\u00a0 I don’t think it’s the all-out rule they make it.\u00a0 (And I notice they don’t all agree.)\u00a0\u00a0 I don’t think it matters a flip whether you outline in detail or write it as it comes…whether you make up character charts for each character or not…whether you start the story on a dark and stormy night or a sunny afternoon or with BANG!…whether you use long words or short ones, long sentences or short ones, long chapters or short ones.\u00a0 \u00a0 Readers aren’t all alike.\u00a0 Readers don’t all like the same kinds of stories.<\/p>\n
I have one rule.\u00a0 The rule for writing is “Don’t bore the reader.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If you don’t bore the reader, you will find readers.\u00a0 You may be surprised at some of them (“YOU like my book???”)\u00a0 You may not find the ones you want.\u00a0 But you will have readers.\u00a0\u00a0 If you bore readers…you won’t.<\/p>\n
This is a true rule, but it’s like my riding instructor saying “Just balance” or my voice coach saying “Just make it musical.”\u00a0\u00a0 The simplest and truest rule has within it layers of complexity…Just balance with your spine in line with the spine of a moving animal, perfectly in balance at all gaits and in all maneuvers, so perfectly that your arms and legs have complete independence for giving precise signals.\u00a0\u00a0 Just sing so that every sound you make–the start of each note, the middle of each note, the finish of each not, the transition to the next and the next, the entire phrase, is purely music.<\/p>\n
Some riding days are endless trotting….around and around and around being told not to hunch, not to hollow, not to grab with your knees, to relax the shoulders, relax the elbows…just balance…\u00a0\u00a0 Some singing days are endless attempts at a simple five note phrase, over and over and over, being told no, the attack on the second note wasn’t musical and no, the end of the phrase wasn’t musical.<\/p>\n
And some writing days are like that…word after word, phrase after phrase, sentences after sentence.\u00a0\u00a0 The 2000 words are needed for the book, but they’re also those 20 meter circles at sitting trot, those scales…they are the foundation on which a book can be built.<\/p>\n
Oh, you want numbers?\u00a0 Since last Sunday night, 13,232.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There’s nothing like actually turning off everything else and convincing the distractable mind that no, it cannot do anything until it’s produced the day’s wordage.\u00a0 No, we are not playing Solitaire.\u00a0 No, we are not reading email.\u00a0 No, we are not checking Twitter, or LJ, or the SFF.net newsgroup.\u00a0\u00a0 The television is off limits.\u00a0\u00a0 The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,5],"tags":[62,20,107],"class_list":["post-828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craft","category-the-writing-life","tag-craft-of-writing","tag-progress-report","tag-the-writing-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=828"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":829,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions\/829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}